$pread Magazine - Issue 3.2
Hot Topic: What do your parents think you do for money?
Professional Domination started as a summer college job for me. When it came time to tell my parents what I was doing, I needed a job where they wouldn't be able to call and "check in" or come surprise me for lunch. Naturally, dog walking made the most sense. Besides, I was pretty much a dog walker anyway.
The next summer, my brother told my parents the same thing as his cover for dealing drugs, without knowing that this was also my cover story. Needless to say, my parents didn't buy either of our stories for a second-it was highly improbable that either one of us would take a job where we had to walk animals and scoop poop for eight hours a day in 90 degree weather.
-S.N. Pro-Domme, New York
I tell my neighbors, kids, and family that I pay the bills with life insurance from my late husband (who died of cancer), even though we actually officially divorced right before he went and his family got everything. I also tell them that I do network marketing on a website and part-time interior design. I am going to transition into telling them I am working as a counselor, since I do have a Master's degree in social work.
-Lisa
I am a COCKtail waitress of course. Except I work for a company that provides on-call waitresses to different nightclubs and venues as fill-in help for special events or if they are having staffing issues.
-Lana, stripper, Las Vegas
I love office work. Sounds silly, but spreadsheets and message books with carbon-copied layers give me wood. Filemaker Pro is as good as a video game. I run my own business as a Domme, so I'm familiar with all of these things. I'm an organized ho.
Before I began working independently, I worked at a house of domination. It was an extremely organized place too. We told our neighbors we were "a group of friends who do all different kinds of creative work-from performance therapy to design-and we share this space to keep costs down, facilitate collaboration, and share clients." Just a little white lie.
As the weeks and months wore on, it became increasingly clear that I would have to lie to my parents about what I did. They would, of course, want to know why I was able to quit my mundane retail job, travel whenever, and change my schedule easily. This was a problem for me; I am a terrible liar. I wear the conflict on my face. I knew that a lie to my parents would have to be planned out, automatic, something I partly believed. I gradually became more comfortable explaining it. Receptionist. I am a receptionist for an arts and design collective. All of the duties were things I actually did at the house: answer phones, take appointments, greet clients, make coffee, make changes to the schedule as needed, and update client information.
They believed it without hesitation. I became comfortable with it. Two years later, it is still my cover. Lying is bad, right? Sometimes it is a useful tool that can bring people together. I am able to share more about my life with my parents because of my lies.
-Tara, Pro-Domme, West Coast
My mother thinks I work as an assistant in a studio earning $12/hr. All the extra money is stashed away in my apartment or used towards school, so she won't notice I have more money than I should be earning.
-Elsie, Pro-Domme, New York
My parents think I work various part-time environmental non-profit jobs. This is an easy story to maintain, since I do work such jobs-in addition to spanking, caning, tying, and taunting men for money. In their ignorance, my parents are proud of me. They made a lot of sacrifices to bring me up as an educated and principled do-gooder.
If they knew the full story, my father would no doubt be irate, confused, and incredulous. But I think my mother would be even more proud of me, in a secret, dark corner of her heart. Apparent-me is sweet, smart, capable, and idealistic but she can't throw a punch to save her life. All-of-me, however, is a bad ass.
-Alice, Pro-Domme, San Francisco
I am a 20-year-old college student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I have had to keep my moonlighting as a phone sex girl hidden from my parents, as they would seriously hate me, so I told them I was a hospitality worker in the entertainment industry. Getting through school while paying your own way is difficult at best. This industry pays rather well, but there seems to be no end to the lies I have to tell.
-Jennifer, Phone Sex Girl, Fayetteville, AR
I can't tell my parents about my job because their brains would explode in shock, so I have successfully convinced them that each day I go to work as a nanny. There are more similarities than one might think. Both require a playful yet authoritarian disposition and both use the system of punishment and reward to control specific behaviors. At both my real and pretend jobs I am strict, yet maternal. Making up stories for my mothers' Sunday phone call has proven easier than I anticipated. My "little boys" and I play pretend games that are spontaneously imaginative yet I know exactly when to be firm. Oh yeah, and occasionally there are diapers involved.
-Heather, Pro-Domme, San Francisco
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